At This Point, What's the Point of Art Detour?

Editor's note:On Tuesday morning, as this week's issue was going to press, ArtLink announced it was going to create a map for this year's Art Detour.

I've been thinking about Art Detour. It's been off my radar lately, ever since three years ago, anyway, when I was working on a story about the annual art event's 20th anniversary. On that occasion I started out, like any 21st-century reporter might, by heading to Artlink's website for background material on what I expected to be a huge 20-year blowout.

Sara Dalton

Chuck Dragon by Iggy + The YMCA and Lincoln Family at Bragg's Pie Factory.

The website hadn't been updated in more than a year. There was no mention of that year's Detour event.

I wrote my piece anyway, then attended the tour just as I've done every year since 1989, carefully marking my Detour map with little Xs to indicate which galleries and artist studios I planned to visit, then climbing aboard the free shuttle buses that ran us art lovers from one spot to the next. But I haven't been back since, for one very simple reason: I can't quite figure out why — with the advent of the monthly First Friday art event, which has spawned the ever-more-popular Third Friday affair — there's any point in Art Detour at all anymore.

Word on the street lately is that gallery owners and artists tend to agree with me. Earlier this month, my colleague Claire Lawton reported on Jackalope Ranch (phxculture.com) about how there are no Art Detour maps being printed this year. And no shuttles. And no real clear answer, at least as far as I can tell, why one would go look at art on the third weekend of the month when one can do so on the first and third Fridays of that same month.

As this year's event approaches — and while Artlink is facing a potential lawsuit from disgruntled former board members and at least one local gallery owner — there are no simple answers, though I went looking for them.

The main difference between Art Detour and First Friday, Artlink president Sloane Burwell assured me, is that artists who don't have gallery shows are more likely to throw open the doors to their studio once a year than they are once a month — or they were, back when there were those nice maps to show you where the studios were located and cozy buses to take you there.

"The trolleys were incredibly expensive," Burwell sighed. "And they're not cost-effective, because most people like to park their car and walk around on their own from gallery to gallery. Our shuttle ridership figures were way down, so we're not using them this year."

And the maps? How am I supposed to find Eric Cox's studio at the Galleria or know whether Kathy Taylor is showing anywhere this year without a map to guide me? "We'll have information booths set up in each neighborhood," Burwell said. "You go to the booth on, say, Grand Avenue, and we'll have a walking tour, with a tour guide who will take groups around from gallery to gallery. And we're talking about a light-rail tour that will start at Practical Art over on Camelback and Central."

A walking tour. With no map to guide me. And a tour guide. Or I can just get on light-rail and do it myself. Again, with no map.

"Well," Burwell told me, less than two weeks before Detour was scheduled to commence, "none of these things is finalized yet. But we do have two tour guides signed up so far."

Baffled, I telephoned Beatrice Moore. She founded both Artlink and Art Detour, which began when Moore hosted an arty open house at Madison Street Studios in 1989. "It grew from there," Moore reminded me. "I went around asking all the artists if anyone would be interested in an annual art walk type of thing. We had the usual meetings, and I applied for the grants, and it kind of evolved into Art Detour."

Back then, Moore told me, there was a greater need for an annual art walk. "Downtown was a wasteland 23 years ago. You had to hunt to find an art-related thing, where today you walk into any cafe and there's art on the walls. That's true of any city as it grows and develops, but I'm not sure that Art Detour has grown along with this city. It may have outlived its usefulness."

Moore agrees with Burwell that Art Detour is uniquely different from First Fridays, and that there's still a place for it in the downtown art scene. "If it completely went away, we'd really lose something," she says. But right now, it's unclear exactly what that loss would be.

"That's because there hasn't been proper promotion in making a distinction between the two events," Moore says. "It's true that many artists only participate in Art Detour, and you won't get to see them on a First Friday. But it's also true that Artlink has not done a lot to explain that to people, so they may not come."

A number of gallery owners, frustrated with this unique approach to a once-exciting event, are going rogue this year — participating unofficially, without paying the $100 Detour fee that would have once covered their inclusion on a map and defer the cost of the shuttle service to their gallery. Others, according to Moore, simply aren't participating. "Artlink has done such a terrible job promoting it," she says, "that some gallery owners don't know if anyone will come. So they figure, why bother opening?"

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I'm an artist and remember years ago there were more ways to find out about what was going on than there are now. You'd think things would've gotten better, not worse. I know some of this can be blamed on the economy but not all of it. My husband and I moved back to Phoenix after an absence of several years. We thought we might be returning to more of an art community than we'd had while living in the midwest for his job. But it's disappointing that there is really no really good place to go, to get info on galleries, events, etc. And what about someplace to find out about calls for entries for upcoming shows? I often find out about shows and events long after it's too late to have entered them, and sometimes even too late to make plans to attend them. In some ways I know I just haven't gotten back in my groove yet, but the more I read and hear about the arts community here, the more I'm convinced it's not just me being out of the loop...there just isn't much of a loop and that's sad.

The lack of organization from the Artlink people is just astounding. I have been to every ArtDetour for years, that is where I buy my art. I hate buying on First Friday and walking around with a big piece of art or walking around with enough cash to buy art, but with Art Detour I could see a piece and come back the next day to buy it. It is sad that Artlink has given up, for whatever reason, on promoting art downtown and given that power to the neighborhoods.

I'd add the suggestion that Artlink change its bylaws so that members of other established Art Organizations and or Stake-holder Organizations that have direct conflicts of interest are not allowed to be on the board of Artlink! They can be member, just not board members.

This is only the first year in my recollection they haven't been distributing maps earlier, or buses at all. There used to be seasonal maps full of destinations but I haven't seen them lately.

But Grand and Roosevelt have been destinations for gallery openings every First Friday for years now.

Up and down Grand, and all along Roosevelt, you will see many places open 6-10pm during First Friday and all weekend both night (Friday) and day (Sat/Sun) this Detour.

But maps, info etc. or even visiting galleries won't matter if you don't make contacts with the gallerists and artists you are interested in working with. In addition, you could have all of that info and still not find a good fit for your work. The best test is, if they seem too busy for you, it's probably not a good fit.

The Trunk Space on Grand has been around since '04. They are very friendly and always open to showing new acts and artists. That may be a good place to start, as they do lots of group or themed shows, and are up for ideas. It helps to not want to jump in right away with a solo show as taking up all the walls is always a risk--all around-- first time out..

Calls for artists can be offered through contacts at SMoCA, Mesa Arts Center or the Phoenix Art Museum. The Burton Barr Library and Phoenix Arts Commission offers Calls quite often, as well.

There definitely is a loop. There are many many ways to get info but it's become more fragmented in a sense. Part of it is due to growing pains of the city: like/admit it or not, it's becoming a big city, and many can't agree on what to do next, not least of which is the city itself.

You have to get out there and make friends and ask them a lot of questions--especially to the owners. It's definitely a process. Third Fridays in Phoenix and First Thursdays in Scottsdale are good nights for that.

As for coverage, don't rely on the papers...after all, you read this online.

I completely agree with you. I look forward to Art Detour all year, but only through feverish Internet searches, being friends with the right people on Facebook and (formerly) Myspace, being on mailing lists, and reading the New Times do I find out about all the happenings around town. This is simply ridiculous. I'm so tired of reading Artlink's never-updated website, hoping for news or a map or ANYTHING! For what is billed as the biggest art event of the year, everything seems so haphazard. Roosevelt Row CDC and Grand Avenue Arts and Small Business District are doing great for their immediate areas, but what about the outliers? In the past, the Warehouse District and Uptown were where the unforgettable shows would always be found. Now, who's going to promote their existence?I'll be downtown again all day this Saturday for Detour, but blazing my own trail.And as a side note, 'tweeting and promoting like crazy?' Now that is a bold-faced lie if I've ever heard one. Artlink just put up a wordpress blog today, and has updated its Facebook and Twitter no more than a handful of times. In a world of endless opportunities for free promotion, this sort of lackluster effort is ridiculous.

Thanks for your reply and tips. "Fragmented" is an excellent word to describe arts info here!

Yup, I've been doing as you suggest, slowly getting back into it, meeting gallery owners and networking, and am happy to say things are falling into place as a result. Was in a show last year, and have several pieces in a gallery right now. Joined one of the local artists' guilds. I work in miniatures a lot so I could not really fill a gallery at this point on my own. My work is of a genre that doesn't fit a lot of galleries so I've been seeking out those that are, and will submit portfolios to them.

Seems like, for a reasonable subscription fee, (and/or paid advertisers), it'd be possible to publish a newsletter that really did a good job of condensing that kind of info. Of course, starting any business endeavor in this economy is a lot riskier and I'm sure that'd be the reason given for no one being willing or able to start something like that.